Sean Bean

Sean Bean (born Shaun Mark Bean, 17 April 1959) is an English actor. Recognised for his work in both film and television, he has received various accolades including three BAFTA TV Awards, a Critics' Choice Award, an Actor Award and an International Emmy Award.

After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he made his professional debut in a production of Romeo and Juliet in 1983 at The Watermill Theatre. Retaining his Yorkshire accent, he first found mainstream success for his portrayal of Richard Sharpe in the ITV television drama series Sharpe, which originally ran from 1993 to 1997.

Bean made his film debut in the historical drama Caravaggio (1986) and received further attention for his roles in Stormy Monday (1988) and Patriot Games (1992). He played the main antagonist Alec Trevelyan in the James Bond film GoldenEye (1995) and had a supporting role in the neo-noir action thriller Ronin (1998). Bean achieved international recognition for portraying Boromir in the fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003). Following the success of Lord of the Rings, Bean appeared in a variety of films, including in the science fiction Equilibrium (2002), the action-adventure heist National Treasure (2004), Greek King Odysseus in the epic historical action Troy (2004), the mystery psychological thriller Flightplan (2005), Harry Mason in the supernatural horror films Silent Hill (2006) and Silent Hill: Revelation (2012), the action horror Black Death (2010), and the epic science fiction survival film The Martian (2015).

Bean's television roles include the BBC anthology series Accused and the six-part drama Broken, Ned Stark in the HBO fantasy drama Game of Thrones, and the ITV historical drama series Henry VIII and Legends. As a voice actor, he has been featured in the video games The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006), Sid Meier's Civilization VI (2016), and the feature films Wolfwalkers (2020) and Mummies (2023) among others. Since 2002, Bean has been the main voiceover on adverts for O2, a telecommunications services provider. In 2022, he won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for Time, a BBC One drama.

Early life

Shaun Mark Bean was born in the Handsworth suburb of Sheffield on 17 April 1959, the son of Rita and Brian K. Bean (born 1934). He has a younger sister, Lorraine. His paternal grandfather, Harold Bean Jr. (1914–2001), served in the Royal Navy in the Second World War and was a stud mill labourer who later became a pacifist. His father owned a fabrication company that employed 50 people, including Bean's mother, who worked as a secretary. Despite becoming relatively wealthy, the family never moved away from the council estate as they preferred to remain close to friends and family. As a child, Bean smashed a glass door during an argument, which left a piece of glass embedded in his leg that briefly impeded his walking, and left a large scar.

Bean first attended a local school, Handsworth Junior School, before going to Athelstan School until he was 12, when he went to study at Brook School. In 1975, Bean left Brook Comprehensive School with O levels in Art and English. After a job at a supermarket and another for the local council, he started work at his father's firm. Once a week, he attended Rotherham College of Arts and Technology to study welding. While at college, he came upon an art class, and decided to pursue his interest in art. After attending courses at two other colleges, one for half a day and the other for less than a week, he returned to Rotherham College, where he enrolled in a drama course. After some college plays and one at Rotherham Civic Theatre, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), starting a seven-term course in January 1981. In 1984, he starred in David and Jonathan by William Douglas-Home at the Redgrave Theatre in Farnham. Between 1986 and 1988, he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in productions of Romeo and Juliet, The Fair Maid of the West, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He appeared in his first film, Derek Jarman's Caravaggio (1986), opposite Tilda Swinton, playing Ranuccio Tomassoni, followed by the same director's War Requiem (1988). He had the protagonist role in Stormy Monday (1988), directed by Mike Figgis. In 1989, he starred as the evil Dominic O'Brien in The Fifteen Streets, where he gained a dedicated following.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bean became an established actor on British television. In 1990, Bean starred in Jim Sheridan's adaptation of the John B. Keane play The Field. Also in 1990, his role as the journalist Anton in Windprints examined the difficult problems of apartheid in South Africa. He appeared in the BBC productions Clarissa (1991) (with Saskia Wickham and Lynsey Baxter) and Lady Chatterley (1993) (with Joely Richardson). In 1996, he combined his love of football with his career to finally achieve his childhood dream of playing for Sheffield United, starring as Jimmy Muir in the film When Saturday Comes. Although the film was not critically acclaimed, Bean received credit for a good performance. In August 1997, Bean appeared in what became a famous Sky Sports commercial for the upcoming 1997–98 Premier League season. His football-related work continued in 1998 when he narrated La Coupe de la Gloire, the official film of the 1998 FIFA World Cup held in France.

Bean's critical successes in Caravaggio and Lady Chatterley contributed to his emerging image as a sex symbol, but he became most closely associated with the character of Richard Sharpe, the maverick Napoleonic Wars rifleman in the ITV television series Sharpe. The series was based on Bernard Cornwell's novels about the Peninsular War, and the fictional experiences of a band of soldiers in the famed 95th Rifles. Starting with Sharpe's Rifles, the series followed the fortunes and misfortunes of Richard Sharpe as he rose from the ranks as a Sergeant, promoted to Lieutenant in Portugal, to Lieutenant Colonel by the time of the Battle of Waterloo.

Bean was not the first actor to be chosen to play Sharpe. As Paul McGann was injured while playing football two days into filming, the producers initially tried to work around his injury, but it proved impossible and Bean replaced him. The series ran continuously from 1993 to 1997, with three episodes produced each year. It was filmed under challenging conditions, first in Ukraine and later in Portugal. After several years of rumours, more episodes were produced: Sharpe's Challenge (2006) and Sharpe's Peril (2008). Both of these were released as two cinema-length 90-minute episodes per series. With a role as enigmatic Lord Richard Fenton in the TV miniseries Scarlett, Bean made the transition to Hollywood feature films. His first notable Hollywood appearance was that of an Irish republican terrorist in the 1992 film adaptation of Patriot Games. While filming his death scene, Harrison Ford hit him with a boat hook, giving him a permanent scar. Bean's rough-cut looks made him a patent choice for a villain, and his role in Patriot Games was the first of several villains that he would portray, all of whom die in gruesome ways. He played the weak-stomached Spence in Ronin (1998), a wife-beating ex-con in Essex Boys (2000), and a malevolent kidnapper/jewel thief in Don't Say a Word (2001). He was also widely recognised as villainous treasure hunter Ian Howe in National Treasure, and played a villainous scientist in The Island (2005). In the independent film Far North, he plays a Russian mercenary who gets lost in the tundra and is rescued by an Inuit woman and her daughter, whom he later pits against one another.

Bean's most prominent role was as Boromir in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. His major screen time occurs in the first instalment, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He appears briefly in flashbacks in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, as well as in a scene from the extended edition of The Two Towers. Before casting finished, rumours circulated that Jackson had considered Bean for the role of Aragorn, but neither Bean nor Jackson confirmed this in subsequent interviews. Bean's fear of flying in helicopters caused him difficulties in mountainous New Zealand, where the trilogy was filmed. After a particularly rough ride, he vowed not to fly to a location again; in one instance, he chose to take a ski lift into the mountains while wearing his full costume (complete with shield, armour, and sword) and then hike the final few miles.

Other roles gave more scope for his acting abilities. In 1999's Extremely Dangerous, his character walked a fine line between villain and hero. He became a repentant, poetry-reading Grammaton cleric who succumbs to his emotions in 2002's Equilibrium, a quirky alien cowboy in 2003's The Big Empty, and a sympathetic and cunning Odysseus in the 2004 film Troy. He appeared with other Hollywood stars in Moby's music video "We Are All Made of Stars" in February 2002. In the same year, he returned to the stage in London performing in Macbeth. Due to popular demand, the production ran until March 2003. In 2005, Bean had sizeable roles in the films Flightplan and North Country.

Bean has done voice-over work, mostly in the British advertising industry. He has featured in television adverts for O2, Morrisons and Barnardos as well as for Acuvue and the Sci-Fi Channel in the United States. He also does the voice-over for the National Blood Service's television and radio campaign. Bean has also filmed a TV ad for Yorkshire Tea, a United Kingdom brand of tea. For the role playing video game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, he voiced Martin Septim. Bean's distinctive voice has also been used in the intro and outro segments of the BBC Formula 1 racing coverage for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

Bean completed a one-hour pilot, Faceless, for American television. He has also appeared in Outlaw (2007), an independent British remake of the 1986 horror film The Hitcher; here he used an American accent again. In 2009, he appeared in the Red Riding trilogy as the malevolent John Dawson. He also appeared in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), playing the role of Zeus, the king of Mount Olympus and God of the sky, thunder, and lightning. Also, that year, Bean starred in Cash, playing the lead role of Pyke Kubic, a dangerous man determined to recover his wealth in a bad economy. Cash explored the role money plays in today's hard economic times. Bean also played the villain's twin brother, Reese. Bean starred in the first season of Game of Thrones, HBO's adaptation of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin, playing the part of Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark. Bean and Peter Dinklage were the two actors whose inclusion show runners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss considered necessary for the show to become a success, and for whose roles no other actors were considered. His portrayal won him critical praise; as The A.V. Club reviewer put it, he "portrayed Ned as a man who knew he lived in the muck but hoped for better and assumed everyone else would come along for the ride." HBO's promotional efforts focused on Bean as the show's leading man and best-known actor.

2012–present: Further film and television roles

In 2012, Bean appeared in four films: Soldiers of Fortune; Cleanskin, in which he plays a secret service agent faced with the task of pursuing and eliminating a suicide bomber and his terrorist cell; Tarsem Singh's Snow White adaptation, Mirror Mirror; and the sequel Silent Hill: Revelation, in which he reprised his role as Christopher Da Silva. Also that year, Bean co-starred in the ABC drama series Missing, and appeared as cross-dressing teacher Simon in the opening episode of the second season of UK television series Accused, a role which would earn him a Royal Television Society best actor award.

Bean starred in the espionage television series Legends as Martin Odum, an FBI agent who takes on various fabricated identities to go undercover. The show was canceled after its second season. An intensive viral marketing campaign was centred on the hashtag #DontKillSeanBean, focusing on the various deaths of his past characters and promising his character in Legends would not suffer the same fate. The campaign culminated with a Funny or Die exclusive video featuring Bean filming a scene for the show where he's become so accustomed to dying on screen that he expects his character to die a bizarrely gruesome death despite the simplicity of the scene.

From 2015 to 2017, Bean starred in the ITV Encore drama series The Frankenstein Chronicles. In that time, he also starred in multiple notable films including Jupiter Ascending, Pixels, and The Martian. In 2017, Bean starred in the BBC series Broken as the troubled priest Father Michael Kerrigan, which earned him a BAFTA award for Best Actor. In 2019, Bean played a damaged veteran in the TV drama World on Fire, basing his interpretation on his late paternal grandfather.

On 31 May 2020, Bean appeared on Josh Gad's YouTube series Reunited Apart which reunites the cast of popular movies through video-conferencing, and promotes donations to non-profit charities. The episode saw Bean reunited with fellow Lord of the Rings castmates Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, Miranda Otto, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler, Karl Urban, and Elijah Wood, plus composer Howard Shore, writer Philippa Boyens and director Peter Jackson.

In 2021, the actor was reunited with Jimmy McGovern (author of Broken and Accused) and Stephen Graham (his co-star in Tracie's Story) for the 3-part BBC prison drama Time.

Bean starred alongside Nicola Walker in Stefan Golaszewski's drama series Marriage (2022), which opened to mixed reviews from both critics and viewers.

In 2025, he played the main role of Ronnie Phelan, head of a drug dealer family, alongside Julie Graham, and Jack McMullen, playing his wife and son, and James Nelson-Joyce, his number two, in the BBC Liverpool based gangster television series This City Is Ours (2025).

Public image Personality

Bean is often described as "down to earth" and has retained his Yorkshire accent. He has developed a reputation as a loner, a label that he considers unfair. with one interviewer calling him "surprisingly shy". He admits that he can be a workaholic; he reads books or listens to music in his spare time, and is a skilled pianist. He is also a keen gardener, welder, and sketcher. Popular in his home county, a 2018 poll for Yorkshire Day saw Bean ranked the second greatest Yorkshireman ever behind Monty Python comedian, and fellow Sheffielder, Michael Palin.

Acting style Despite being professionally trained, Bean adopted an instinctive style of acting that some say makes him especially well-suited to portraying his characters' depths. He has said that the most difficult part is at the start of filming when trying to understand the character. After achieving this, he can snap in and out of character instantly. This ability to go from the quiet man on set to the warrior Boromir "amazed" Sean Astin during filming of The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Other fans include directors Mike Figgis and Wolfgang Petersen, who described working with Bean as a "beautiful thing". Bean's favourite on-screen death is Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring: "I thought his death was very heroic and triumphant and poignant. It had pathos." As an homage to this meme, Bean appears in 2018 Hitman 2 video game as an elusive target named Mark Faba, a.k.a. "The Undying" for his seeming inability to die.

In September 2019, Bean revealed that he had begun turning down roles in which his character is killed because the pattern had become predictable.

Personal life Bean has been married five times and divorced four times. He married his secondary school sweetheart Debra James on 11 April 1981, and they were divorced in 1988. He met actress Melanie Hill at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and they were married on 27 February 1990. Their first daughter was born in October 1987, and their second was born in September 1991. Their marriage ended in divorce in August 1997. During the filming of Sharpe, Bean met actress Abigail Cruttenden, and they were married on 22 November 1997. Their daughter was born in November 1998. They were divorced in July 2000. In addition to his three children, Bean has four grandchildren.

Bean began dating actress Georgina Sutcliffe in 2006. After cancelling their planned January 2008 wedding on the eve of the ceremony for "personal reasons", he married Sutcliffe at the Marylebone Town Hall in London on 19 February 2008. During allegations that Bean physically abused Sutcliffe in 2009, and a decree nisi was granted on 21 December 2010. He married Ashley Moore on 30 June 2017.

Bean has been a fan of Sheffield United F.C. (the "Blades") since he was eight years old, and has a tattoo on his left shoulder that reads "100% Blade". He opened their Hall of Fame in 2001 and, after making a six-figure contribution to the club's finances, was on their board of directors between 2002 and 2007 to help raise the profile of the club. He stepped down in 2007 to "go back to being an ordinary supporter" where he feels at home. During his time there, he had a dispute with Neil Warnock, former manager of Sheffield United, after Warnock claimed that Bean stormed into his office and shouted at him in front of his wife and daughter when the club had just been relegated from the Premier League. Bean denies it, calling Warnock "bitter" and "hypocritical". He wrote the foreword and helped to promote a book of anecdotes called Sheffield United FC: The Biography (2006). He also follows Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

Bean has a tattoo of the number nine on his shoulder, written using Tengwar, in reference to his involvement in the Lord of the Rings films and that his character was one of the original nine companions of the Company of the Ring. Seven of the other actors of "The Fellowship" (Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan and Viggo Mortensen) have the same tattoo, while John Rhys-Davies, whose character was also one of the original nine companions, arranged for his stunt double to get the tattoo instead.

Aligned with the British left, in 2015 Bean expressed support for Jeremy Corbyn and for "old Labour", the era before Tony Blair rebranded the party as New Labour; Bean also spoke of his admiration for Tony Benn.

Bean is a Christian and a gardener in his spare time. He also hosts a popular ornithology podcast Get Birding.

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1984 Winter Flight Hooker 1986 Caravaggio Ranuccio 1988 Stormy Monday Brendan 1989 How to Get Ahead in Advertising Larry Frisk The Fifteen Streets Dominic O'Brien War Requiem German Soldier 1990 Windprints Anton Tadhg McCabe 1992 Patriot Games Sean Miller 1994 Shopping Venning Black Beauty Farmer Grey 1995 GoldenEye Alec Trevelyan / Janus 1996 When Saturday Comes Jimmy Muir 1997 Anna Karenina Vronsky 1998 Ronin Spence Airborn Dave Toombs 1999 Bravo Two Zero Andy McNab 2000 Essex Boys Jason Locke 2001 Don't Say a Word Patrick Koster Boromir 2002 Extended edition only Equilibrium Errol Partridge Tom and Thomas Paul Shepherd 2003 Boromir Cowboy 2004 National Treasure Ian Howe Troy Odysseus 2005 North Country Kyle Dodge Flightplan Captain Marcus Rich Dr. Merrick James 2006 Silent Hill Chris Da Silva 2007 John Ryder Outlaw Danny Bryant Far North Loki 2010 Black Death Ulric Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief Zeus Cash Pyke Kubic / Reese Kubic Death Race 2 Markus Kane Direct-to-DVD 2011 Age of Heroes Jones 2012 Cleanskin Ewan Soldiers of Fortune Dimidov Mirror Mirror The King, Snow White's father Silent Hill: Revelation Christopher Da Silva / Harry Mason 2014 Wicked Blood Frank Stinson 2015 The Snow Queen 2: The Snow King Arrog Voice Any Day Vian Jupiter Ascending Stinger Apini Pixels Corporal Hill The Martian Mitch Henderson 2016 The Young Messiah Severus Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV King Regis Voice 2017 Drone Neil Dark River Richard Bell The Unconquered Narrator Voice; short film 2018 Taniel Narrator Voice; short film 2020 Possessor John Parse Wolfwalkers Bill Goodfellowe Voice 2023 Mummies Pharaoh Voice Knights of the Zodiac Alman Kiddo (Mitsumasa Kido) 2024 Buffalo Kids Outlaw Wilson Voice 2025 Deep Cover DS Billings Anemone Jem Stoker 2026 The Isolate Thief Fiddler John 2026 Rogue Trooper Colonel Dicey Voice The Yellow Tie Completed

Television

Video games Year Title Voice role Notes 1997 GoldenEye 007 Alec Trevelyan Likeness 2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Boromir 2006 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Martin Septim 2012 Lego The Lord of the Rings Boromir 2013 Papa Sangre II Narrator / Guide Train Simulator 2014 Narrator Marketing trailer only 2014 Train Simulator 20152015 Kholat Life Is Feudal 2016 Sid Meier's Civilization VI 2018 Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Rise and Fall Hitman 2 Mark Faba Voice and likeness 2019 Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm Narrator A Plague Tale: Innocence Marketing trailer only 2025 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Martin Septim Archival recordings

Music videos Year Artist Title Role 2002 Moby "We Are All Made of Stars" Himself

Voice over

Awards and honours In his home city of Sheffield, he has received several honours and acclaims, including an honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University in 1997 and a Doctor of Letters in English Literature from the University of Sheffield in July 2007. He was selected as one of the inaugural members of Sheffield Legends (the Sheffield equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame) and a plaque in his honour has been placed in front of Sheffield Town Hall. Bean commented: "I did get a doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University about 11 or 12 years ago so now I'm a double doctor. But this was wonderful, especially from my home city." 2002 Empire Award Best British Actor The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 2002 Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 2002 DVD Exclusive Award Best Audio Commentary, New Release The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 2003 Online Film Critics Society Award Best Ensemble The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 2003 Phoenix Film Critics Society Award Best Acting Ensemble The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 2004 Phoenix Film Critics Society Award Best Acting Ensemble The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 2004 Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 2004 Critics' Choice Award Best Acting Ensemble The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 2004 National Board of Review Best Acting by an Ensemble The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 2010 Screamfest Horror Film Festival Best Actor Black Death 2011 Portal Award Best Actor Game of Thrones 2011 IGN Summer Movie Award Best Television Hero Game of Thrones 2011 IGN People's Choice Award Best Television Hero Game of Thrones 2011 Scream Award Best Ensemble Game of Thrones 2011 Scream Award Best Fantasy Actor Game of Thrones 2012 Saturn Award Best Actor on Television Game of Thrones 2012 Fangoria Chainsaw Award Best Actor Black Death 2013 International Emmy Award Best Actor Accused 2013 Royal Television Society Awards Best Actor Accused 2013 BAFTA Award Leading Actor Accused 2013 People's Choice Award Favorite Cable TV Actor Legends 2017 Royal Television Society NW Best Performance in a Single Drama or Drama Series (Male) Broken 2017 Cologne Film Festival Hollywood Reporter Award Himself 2018 BAFTA Award Leading Actor Broken 2022 BAFTA Award Leading Actor Time 2022 BAFTA Award Best Mini-Series Time